Food Photography in Restaurants

by Regina Schrambling

on 06/26/13 at 03:00 PM

Last I'd heard, restaurateurs were not crazy about diners snapping their food. But today I learned some are not only allowing the alleged annoyance but rewarding it. Our No. 2 print paper, the WSJournal, reported on the trend toward restaurants giving freebies to those willing to be "brand ambassadors" by posting smartphone photos online.

I don't even have a dumbphone, but I do take my Canon G12 everywhere because I eat for a living. And I usually (but not always) have no qualms about whipping it out to record my ingestion. Once upon a time I kept notebooks of every morsel I ate, but images are easier. Not once has anyone hassled me.

The best part of the Journal's story, though, is the information that restaurateurs are also asking diners to delete photos that make their artfully composed plates look like Technicolor yawns. In the brave new world of social media, there is such a thing as bad publicity.

So, Milan trattoria, please don't come after me . . . (And if I'd kept a notebook, I would be able to tell you the name of the place where I had one of the best pizzas ever.)

Just don't blind me with the flash, OK?
Oh, and make sure you don't actually include in your pic any extraneous people who may not feel like being photographed at the moment, but as a food writer you're focusing on the food, so that's probably not an issue.